Question Number: 29292

Law 9 - The Ball in and out of Play 4/8/2015

RE: Under 15

David of phoenix, Arizona united states asks...

If a the ball crosses the out of bounds line and kick the ball in bounds is it still in play or not

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi David
If ALL of the ball crosses ALL of the boundary line it is out of play and the game restarts with either a throw in, goal kick or corner kick.
Now determining that can prove difficult on tight calls where say perhaps part of the ball is still touching the plane of the line. It might look out of play yet as all the ball has not crossed the line it is still in play.
It the English Premier League Hawkeye technology has been employed to determine if the ball crosses the goal line fully or not.
In this example the ball has not crossed all of the goal line and it is not a goal. If it were a boundary line the ball would still be in play and play would continue. One can imagine that when the ball is in that position for a split second the human eye could not determine that position with 100% accuracy. The assistant referee makes a decision based on what he sees. Unfortunately he cannot compete with HD technology, freeze frame camera technology etc. I suspect in a game there is the likelihood that this ball will look out of play

http://www.101greatgoals.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/BiywynoCIAAMfhK.jpg

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

The location of the player is irrelevant. It is all about the location of the ball. When all of the ball is completely past the line, the ball is out of play. Play must restart with a throw-in, corner kick, goal kick or kick off (as applicable). If any part of the ball is on or over the line, it may be played.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi David,
Soccer is a bit different to some other sports here. It doesn't need to have contact with the ground (eg through the player) to be considered 'out' - the moment the entire ball has passed the entire line, it's out. If any part of the ball is still above the line (even if no part is actually on the field side), it's still in.

So a player can't kick the ball 'back in' - though it may appear so if the ball is 98% out when he kicks it back in.